Anopheles gambiae lacking AgTRIO probe inefficiently on a mammalian host
Yu-Min Chuang,
Yuemei Dong,
Helen Stone,
Selma Abouneameh,
Xu-Dong Tang,
Hamidah Raduwan,
George Dimopoulos,
Erol Fikrig
Affiliations
Yu-Min Chuang
Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Corresponding author
Yuemei Dong
W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Helen Stone
Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Selma Abouneameh
Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Xu-Dong Tang
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Sericultural Biology and Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212018, China
Hamidah Raduwan
Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
George Dimopoulos
W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Erol Fikrig
Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Summary: Malaria is initiated as Plasmodium sporozoites are injected into the dermis when an infected mosquito probes on a vertebrate host for a blood meal. Factors in the mosquito saliva, such as AgTRIO, can alter the ability of Anopheles gambiae to transmit Plasmodium. We therefore used CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome editing to generate AgTRIO knockout (KO) A. gambiae and examined the ability of these mosquitoes to probe on a vertebrate host. AgTRIO KO mosquitoes showed a diminished host probing capacity and required repetitive probing to locate a blood resource to complete a blood meal. This increased probing resulted in enhanced Plasmodium transmission to the vertebrate host. Our data demonstrate the importance of the A. gambiae saliva protein AgTRIO in probing and its influence on the ability of mosquitoes to transmit malaria.
